Sir Christopher Lee has revealed he will only take small roles these days, but they have to be meaningful.

The Count Dracula star turns 90 in 2012 and in the last year has filmed parts in Scorsese's Hugo, indie film The Wicker Tree, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

Sir Christopher said in his Christmas message posted on Hobbit blog theonering.net: "I don't play long parts.

"They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I'm on the screen and people will remember the character after they've seen the film."

The Lord Of The Rings star went on: "The year 2011 has been in many ways a remarkable one for me in terms of the films I was on."

Speaking about his role in Hugo, Sir Christopher joked: "I've known Marty for about 45 years and when he asked me to do this I said 'Well it's about time!'."

And speaking about the two Hobbit films, he revealed: "I've done my part in each one. That took about four days. Saruman who I play again is a good and noble man and the head of the Council of Wizards, as he had always been."

Sir Christopher also said he felt like "part of the family" working with Burton and Johnny Depp again on Dark Shadows.